The Badminton Federation is Hired

Last evening a few teams, for rather complex reasons, decided to tank their badminton matches at the Olympics. If you watch the video of the event, it's comical and a little perturbing, because the Olympics is supposed to be all about the passion of athletics. The crowd was pretty upset and it really put a black mark on their sport.

What happened next was eye-opening, however. The Badminton Federation let them have it, booting the teams out of the Olympics.

On Wednesday, the Badminton World Federation ejected eight doubles players from China, South Korea, and Indonesia for trying to lose on purpose. The federation charged them under sections 4.5 and 4.16 of the organization’s Players’ Code of Conduct: “not using one’s best efforts to win a match” and “conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport.”

"You cannot allow a player to abuse the tournament like that, and not take firm action,” Craig Reedie, International Olympic Committee vice president and former badminton federation chief, told the Associated Press. “So good on them."

Afterwards, the expelled teams went home. All is said and done.

Hmmm..... “Conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport.” Where have we heard that one before?

If this happened in racing, we'd likely see a different result.

The players in question would immediately appeal, so they could play the next day, allowing their ruse to come to fruition, angering both opponents and the fans. If another injunction came where they might not play the next day, the players would've likely contacted the Badminton's players union, and they would've come to their defense with gems like "you can't deny their ability to make a living". Other badminton players who think like they do would've probably rallied around them with excuses like "They're nice people and maybe they didn't really mean it" or "the commission rules are unfair, so I agree with what they did".

In the end, if it were racing, two teams probably would've been playing for the Gold medal and both of them would be on the podium to get their medals, with an incredulous public wondering who in the hell is minding the store in this crazy sport.

But it's not racing. The Badminton Federation kicked them out. Out meant out.

They're hired.